Sunday, January 17, 2010

A journalist pal said to me the other day "If only people who wrote press releases understood what news is, we'd all have a much easier life". I know what she meant. I've seen thousands of press releases that contained no news whatsoever, despite (or perhaps because of) being carefully constructed and edited by PR companies and their clients. No disrespect to PR professionals by the way, I've been a member of the Chartered Institute of PR for years)

* Interest, especially human interest * Current. Is it happening now? * Local. Is it happening here? * Scale. Does it have an impact on many people? * High profile. Are there some big names, whether companies or people, involved? * Conflict. Are there opposing forces or opinions? * Drama. Is it compelling, such as a disaster or overcoming the odds?

The information in this blog may be freely re-used in any online or offline publication, provided it is accompanied by the following credit line - "This information was written by Alan Stevens, and originally appeared in "The MediaCoach Report", at mediacoach.blogspot.com"

My professional qualifications include - MCIPR (Member of the Chartered Institute
of Public Relations), FPSA (Fellow of the Professional Speakers Association) and PSAE (Professional Speaking Award of Excellence)

For the past 25 years, I have appeared regularly on BBC TV
News, Sky News, Radio 4 and Radio 5 Live as well as in every ITV region and dozens
of local radio stations.